


Holiday Spirits

by katierosefun



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff and slight hurt/comfort, Kissing in the Snow, Missing Scene, Older Man/Younger Woman, Snowball Fights, may-december relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 10:30:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5413448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katierosefun/pseuds/katierosefun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After leaving the Christmas party, Caitlin Snow isn't in the mood to go home right away. So she decides to visit STAR Labs and cheer up a probably lonely Harrison Wells. [Set shortly after 2x09, because there was a lack of Snowwells.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holiday Spirits

_Holiday Spirits_

It was snowing when Caitlin walked out of the West’s house. She almost laughed at it. When she was younger, her classmates used to give her grief over every single time it snowed. Especially on cancelled days. (“Thanks, Snow,” they’d tease. “We owe you another one!” And then, once Memorial Day weekend came around, they’d say, “God, Snow, you couldn’t cut us some slack?”)

But despite all of the immature remarks, Caitlin wholly liked the snow. She had her fondest memories involving it – whether it was making snow angels or sitting inside to watch it drift to the ground…there was something deceivingly pretty and sweet about it. (Which was what her parents always told her. Snow was nice and fun to play around with, but the minute things were going bad, snow could take a dangerous turn for the worst with blizzards. “We Snows are made of strong stuff, Cait,” her dad used to tell her.)

“You’ll be okay driving?”

Caitlin whirled around to see Barry and Patty standing on the porch, wearing equally worried expressions. They looked adorable – Patty was resting her head on Barry’s shoulder, and Barry had one arm wrapped around her waist.

“I’ll be fine,” Caitlin replied, flashing a smile at the two of them. “I made sure not to drink that much eggnog, anyways.”

“Friendly reminder that I’m a cop,” Patty called after Caitlin as she walked towards the car. “Can’t have you drunk driving.”

Caitlin let out a light laugh, fluttering her fingers at the direction of Barry and Patty. “I’m not drunk – don’t worry,” she replied easily. “Trust me – if I was drunk, you would all know.” At this, she heard Barry laugh at a little.

With that, Caitlin gave Barry and Patty one last wave before getting into her car. They were still standing on the porch when she drove away.

Caitlin appreciated that more than she should have – and she couldn’t appreciate it completely because she knew why they were standing around like that. Jay had left early (again). Caitlin had tried not to be bothered by it – but it was hard to, especially since they had just kissed under the mistletoe. She had been silently hoping that they would kiss again – or at least maybe even just spend a little more time together…

But Caitlin was sure Jay had other people to be with in celebration of the upcoming holidays. He hadn’t even been rude about leaving, either. He had told Caitlin that he just had other matters to tend to – and then he had given her a quick kiss on the forehead before leaving.

Caitlin wasn’t sure who was more embarrassed and devastated about that – her or Cisco, who actually did a _full body cringe_ when the door closed.

It wasn’t that the party was terrible after that. The holiday cheer was still very much there. Barry, Patty, and Cisco all tried to liven up the atmosphere – and Iris introduced Wally (her brother…? Caitlin didn’t really know who Wally was, but she knew that he was affiliated to the Wests in some way) with her usual grace. They played a game of Charades, which would have been incredibly dorky but somehow wasn’t (especially when Cisco pretended to flirt with Barry). There was plenty of eggnog and gingerbread cookies to go around – and at one point, Iris even put up a video call with Linda, who was enjoying Coast City and wished she could have been able to come to the Christmas party.

So the evening hadn’t been completely terrible. It was just a bit of a discomfort.

Caitlin came to a slow stop in front of one of the traffic lights. She rested her head against the steering wheel. Out of the corner of her eye, she could make out the time. It was only eleven – she wasn’t even tired yet. And to be honest, Caitlin wasn’t too sure she wanted to go home right away.

So when the traffic light turned green, Caitlin found herself taking the familiar drive to STAR Labs. It was completely out of the blue, of course, and there was no particular reason for why she would ever bother driving there –

But still, she pulled into the parking lot and walked out of the car without even a moment of hesitation.

Wrapping her coat tightly around herself, Caitlin cut across the parking lot. She was about to make her way for the doors when suddenly, she heard a soft, “Dr. Snow?”

Caitlin whirled around. “Dr. Wells – Harry,” she said, startled. “What are you doing out here? I thought you’d be inside.”

Harry rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “I got sidetracked,” he replied simply. He shot a glance at the STAR Labs building, adding, “I needed to get some air.”

That was when Caitlin noticed that Harry was only wearing a cardigan.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asked, frowning.

Harry looked down at himself. A look of realization slowly crossed his face – and then, he said, “Not really.” There was something detached in his voice – and then Caitlin remembered why Harry hadn’t wanted to come to the Christmas party.

“He doesn’t want to celebrate with his daughter missing,” Barry had told Caitlin when she asked where he was. “So…he’s going to be alone.” Barry had looked disturbed and a bit disappointed about that, and Caitlin couldn’t help but feel the same. So maybe it was a good thing that she decided to drive here.

“Do you want to go inside?” Caitlin asked gently.

Harry cast a look around the parking lot. Caitlin followed his gaze – and realized that the snow had now created a thin film of white over the black parking lot. Again, Caitlin appreciated the beauty of it all – and then, as though he had read her mind, Harry said, “I think I’d actually rather stay out here.”

“It snowed on your earth, didn’t it?” Caitlin asked, making her way to the front of the building so she’d be standing directly by the doors. She had only been half-joking – but to her credit, Harry’s lips twitched into the quickest and weakest of smiles.

“Yes, Caitlin,” he replied. “We had the occasional snow day.”

Caitlin scooted down a little, and after another moment, Harry was making his way to her side. Letting out a small sigh, Caitlin pocketed her hands and said, “You should have seen me when I was a kid – my classmates used to tease me about my last name on the snow days.”

Harry gave Caitlin a confused look. “About your last name?”

“Snow. Caitlin Snow.”

“I know _that_ ,” Harry replied, lifting his shoulders. “But that’s the only thing they could come up with?”

“For the record, they were pretty well thought-out.”

Harry snorted – and though it was still in his usual sarcastic manner, Caitlin couldn’t help but feel some relief. If he was being sarcastic, that meant he was feeling a little more like himself. Maybe. At least, that’s what Caitlin hoped.

“Did anyone tease you about _your_ last name?” Caitlin asked pointedly. “With all of those poems about kids falling down the well?”

“It never bothered me,” Harry replied with a shrug. “I used to…” His voice drifted a little bit. A faraway look entered his eyes. “I used to ease my daughter about it, though.”

There was a silence.

“I’m sorry,” Caitlin said, her voice quiet. “I didn’t mean –”

“You didn’t know,” Harry replied, scuffing his shoes on the ground. “And it’s not your fault. People shouldn’t apologize for things they can’t control.” He stared down at the snow falling on the ground, saying, “You should get going. It’s getting late.”

“It’s okay. I don’t feel like going home right away.” Caitlin paused. “Unless you _want_ me to go home –”

“No,” Harry interrupted. “I didn’t mean it that way –”

“Of course you didn’t – I mean, not in _that_ way –”

“I appreciate –”

“Yeah –”

The two stopped talking abruptly. Caitlin felt heat creep up her face and quickly turned away, trying to focus on the falling snow instead of all of that blundering. God, did she blunder. She _totally_ blundered. And in front of Harry. _Dammit_. This day was just getting better and better.

“Well, that was a mess.” Harry said decidedly, and though it might have just been because of the cold, Caitlin thought she detected a bit of coloring in his cheeks. (But it was definitely the cold. It had to be.)

“I agree,” Caitlin replied faintly.

“That didn’t happen.”

“Also agreed.”

Caitlin shot another glance at Harry. He was drawing out little patterns on the parking lot with his shoe now, his hands stuffed in his pockets. The atmosphere was definitely awkward now, and Caitlin briefly wondered if Harry was kicking himself about it as much as she was.

And then she did something incredibly Barry or Cisco-like.

Caitlin bent down, scooped some snow up in her hands, balled it up, and tossed it at Harry’s shoulder. It was a light throw – and it exploded into little particles the second it made impact with Harry’s shoulder. And for a terrifying half-second, Harry didn’t react. Caitlin was beginning to wonder what exactly had compelled her to do that when –

“Did you just…throw a _snowball_ at me?” Harry asked, stunned.

“Um…yes?”

“You just threw a snowball at me.”

“I think so.”

“You _picked up the snow_ and _threw_ it at me.”

“Uh-huh.”

Harry stared.

Caitlin stared back.

And then Harry ducked down, his bare hands piling together snow. “Just so you know,” he said, “I’m great at sports – so you’re going to have to watch out.”

Caitlin felt a grin spread across her face – only to have it fall off when the first snowball hit her arm.

“Not fair!” she said indignantly, bending down to grab snow. “You didn’t give me a warning!”

“Well, neither did you!”

Caitlin felt another snowball collide into her – this time into her shoulder. “I’m still picking snow up!” she yelled. “You’re playing dirty, Harry!”

“There aren’t any rules to snowball fights!”

Caitlin stood up triumphantly, chucking the snowball she had put together. To her great amusement and glee, the snowball hit Harry square in the chest. It made a stark mark against his all-black attire, but it didn’t seem to matter much in the next second, because Caitlin got snow stuck in her hair shortly after.

And then Caitlin was running through the parking lot in her high heels, shrieking each time a snowball came too close to her. Her hands were pinker and colder each time she threw a snowball – but she’d always forget about it the second it’d hit Harry.

“Come on!” she cheered at one point. “Is that all you’ve got?”

“Bad question, Snow! Very, very, very bad question!”

Caitlin let out a happy cry as she dodged another snowball. She hid behind her car, saying, “You’re going to have to try a little harder!”

“Trust me – you haven’t seen nothing yet!”

And Caitlin really _hadn’t_ seen anything – because within the next few minutes, Harry had thrown a perfect number of snowballs, all making their marks on Caitlin. At one point, she was laughing too hard to even care if she was cold and wet all over – and she didn’t care if she couldn’t see anything because of the snow caught in her eyelashes – but the two ended the fight by falling in front of the doors of STAR Labs, both breathing hard and occasionally kicking the snow off their shoes.

And through the snow caught in her eyelashes, Caitlin could see an actual smile on Harry’s face now, one that looked more sincere than any of the other smiles that she had ever seen him wear.

Which made her feel happy.

Really happy.

“You’ve got snow in your hair,” she said at last.

“So do you,” Harry replied, pointing up at Caitlin’s head. “All over, actually. Looks like you’ve got a bad case of dandruff.”

“And you look like a grumpier, skinner Santa.”

“I don’t have the beard. I can’t look like Santa.”

“You still look like Santa.”

“You’re only saying that because you can’t think of anything else to compare me to.”

“Yup,” Caitlin replied unashamedly. She turned her head to look at Harry, who had his head resting against the door. His glasses were flecked with snow, and though he looked tired now, there was a definite pinkness to his cheeks from all of the running he had done. Caitlin could make out a familiar brightness behind his glasses, too, which made her heart jump up in relief.

Things would be fine.

They’d save Harry’s daughter – they _would._ And then they’d be happy, and they might even end up visiting each other every once in a while through the portals –

 _Slow down, Caitlin,_ Caitlin thought, shaking her head to herself. _Don’t get ahead of yourself. Take a reality check._

“That was fun,” she said at last. “I’m pretty sure that was the most working out I’ve gotten in this whole month.”

“You’re not the only one.”

Caitlin grinned. She turned to look at Harry again – and found that he was staring straight back at her. She blinked a few times – but she didn’t bother looking away. She only asked, “Are you having trouble seeing anything? I mean, you’ve got snow covering your glasses.”

“It’s only a bit foggy,” Harry replied. “What about you?”

“Just a little trouble.”

“Snow problems.” Harry halfheartedly picked up a little ball of snow, rolling it around his fingers. Caitlin stood up, walking out to the parking lot.

“You better not be planning on throwing that snowball at me,” she said over her shoulder. She bent down, already starting to gather some snow in her hands. “Because if you are, I _swear_ …” She let her voice drift threateningly and turned around quickly, only to find –

_Huh._

It was a light kiss – brief, sweet – and Caitlin found herself thinking, _This isn’t terrible at all._

She could only imagine what they looked like – snow drifting all around them, the yellowy porch light making them glow like a pretty movie effect – it was enough to make Caitlin smile. And she did smile. She was sure Harry could feel it – which, in turn, braved him into kissing her again, this one lighter than the last.

Which Caitlin found ridiculously adorable – and also incredibly different.

So Caitlin kissed him back.

She placed her hands tentatively on Harry’s shoulders, her head tilted a little ways to catch his lips – and then she felt his hands pressing against her upper back, right between her shoulder blades.

And this time, Caitlin could feel Harry’s lips curving into a smile.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I am such trash for this ship - and I don't even care.


End file.
